The Big Bend

Last week we completed one of the milestones of the Great Loop - we crossed the "big bend" of Florida. 175 nautical miles from Carabelle to Gulfport, FL. 30.5 hours at sea.

Our original plan was to go to Tarpon Springs but we extended
the trip to Gulfport to meet up with friends. This also allowed
Sam to travel on another boat to help them out with night watches.

We left Carabelle at dawn on November 30th and motorsailed through the day.  The wind was much lower than forecast so we were unfortunately not able to shut down the engine which made for a noisy trip but it fades to background noise pretty quickly.

Sunrise in Carabelle

Sunset at sea (wonky horizon due to boat rocking)

Sunrise at sea

Sunset.  Still looking energetic...

The reason Riley still had lots of energy at Sunset.  I was on watch alone
for several hours while Reg and Riley slept.  Notice the harness attached
to the boat - you must be tied in when on watch alone. No exceptions. We also
tied in on all night watches if we were sitting close to the side decks of the cockpit
even if we weren't alone.

Our view for most of the night - electronics and backup electronics

This is what the radar looked like all night - not a blip in sight.
Good for safety but doesn't help keep us awake!

And this is the backup to the backup to the electronics.
I plotted our position every hour so that if we lost electronics and
needed to call for help we could still tell the coast guard where we were.